Updated at 11.56am with ministry statement

Almost one in every three say their family cannot afford a one-week yearly holiday away from home and one in every seven would be unable to cope with an unexpected expense of €675.

The figures, which are nevertheless lower than their 2017 equivalents, emerge from a Europe-wide survey of income and living conditions, which measures statistics on households’ income, health, work and material deprivation.

In 2017, 33.9 per cent had said they could not afford a week-long holiday (compared to 30.6 per cent in 2018) and 15.6 per cent said an unexpected expense would financially cripple them (compared to 13.9 per cent in 2018).

There were increases in the shares of households who could not make rent (up to 8.1 per cent from 6.5 per cent) or keep their house warm (7.6 per cent from 6.3 per cent).

Women were more likely to be unable to afford items or activities on every single quality of life indicator measured by the survey, the National Statistics Office reported.

The 2018 European Statistics on Income and Living Conditions Survey found that Malta’s material deprivation rate stood at 8.7 per cent last year – up by 0.7 per cent from the previous year - with severe material deprivation at 3 per cent, down by 0.3 per cent over 2017.

Severe deprivation rates are at a 10-year low, the survey indicates, and have declined from highs reached in 2013 and 2014.

A household is considered to be materially deprived if it is unable to afford three out of nine items, ranging from affording a holiday to making rent, paying for unexpected expenses, eating meat every other day, keeping a house warm or owning a car, washing machine, colour TV or telephone.

Severely deprived households are unable to afford four or more of those nine items.

Less than five per cent of the 3,823 households which responded to the survey said they could not afford their very basic needs, such as replacing worn-out clothes or having two pairs of shoes.

Just under seven per cent said they could not afford to meet friends or family for a drink or meal once a month, and roughly double that share – 13.7 per cent – said a leisure activity, such as attending a concert, was too costly for them to afford.

'Severe deprivation continues to fall' 

The Family Ministry noted that the country's severe material deprivation rate was now "just one third" of where it stood when the Labour government entered office in 2013 and half the EU average of 6.6 per cent. 

Malta's material deprivation rate of 8.7 per cent was also far lower than the EU average of 13.8 per cent, the ministry said, and among Europe's lowest. 

The ministry acknowledged that more people were struggled to make rental or mortgage payments and said this was "the result of the country's economic success and influx of foreign workers". 

It said the government was introducing social measures to make housing more affordable.